{"id":65478,"date":"2025-06-08T15:10:52","date_gmt":"2025-06-08T13:10:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.musikzeitung.ch\/?p=65478"},"modified":"2025-07-16T17:22:14","modified_gmt":"2025-07-16T15:22:14","slug":"telemann-knoechlein","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musikzeitung.ch\/en\/rezensionen\/buecher-rezensionen\/2025\/06\/telemann-knoechlein","title":{"rendered":"This is how Telemann decorated his music"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Georg Philipp Telemann. Etching by Valentin Daniel Preisler, 1750. source: wikimedia commons<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Writing a non-boring book about different ornamentation patterns in a composer's work is a challenge; there is a great danger of falling into dry schoolmasterly language and instantly putting off the readership.<\/p>\n

In her new study on Georg Philipp Telemann's ornamentation practice, Astrid Kn\u00f6chlein shows that such an undertaking is also possible in a lively and practical way. Using his methodical sonata collections (TWV 41 and 42, published in Hamburg in 1728, 1731 and 1732), the recorder player and oboist compiles a comprehensive catalog of ornaments - from the alternating note to the slider to salti composti and circolo - and meticulously locates them in the respective slow movements of the sonatas that Telemann used for ornamentation.<\/p>\n

Theory and practice<\/h3>\n

The \"Handbuch der Verzierungen\" as volume 2 is preceded by a first part with music-theoretical foundations, which underpins the practice with a lively presentation of the discourse in Telemann's time. Kn\u00f6chlein gives his fellow musicians Johann Mattheson and Johann Joachim Quantz ample opportunity to have their say through their most important treatises. As a reader, you feel as if you are sitting in the middle of a theoretical circle of music scholars in northern Germany during the high baroque period.<\/p>\n

To ensure that the musical examples in the second part are not merely dry musical notation, Kn\u00f6chlein focuses on the theory of affects in volume 1. She explains this in a clear, source-based and practical way with the help of musical parameters: Key, melody, rhythm, harmony, meter and finally ornamentation.<\/p>\n

One of the strengths of this two-volume book is that it allows for readings of varying degrees of depth: Anyone interested in Telemann's music-theoretical environment and the most common views on ornamentation practice at the time will find what they are looking for in the first part. Anyone wishing to study and analyze the methodical sonatas in detail, for example with regard to their interpretation, will find it difficult to avoid volume 2.<\/p>\n

This book was written by a music lover for music lovers.<\/p>\n